Recent

I have the Bones, I never use it. It's fine for something like the fatbike in the pic, or a hardtail, but getting a bike with a rear shock on or off it, over the straps, is impossible. The sideways mounted plastic bits on the bottom are supposed to help support the frame, but they just get in the way - I had to take a hacksaw to mine and saw them off before it was remotely usable. And if your bike has a curved top tube, forget it, you'll never get it to balance on there.
Thank dog the new car came with a hitch mounted rack.

I ride with an underseat bag on my DH bike (yeah, I know, hella ghey, but whatever) that carries a CO2, patch kit, multitool, levers and a few spare nuts and bolts. It cost about $15 at MEC and it's great for when I don't feel like carrying a pack. I never notice it when I ride.
For my DH pack, I have a Dakine Drafter that I bought from the Trek Dirt Series. It's a few years old now, and small (I'd guess 10-12L) but that thing's amazing. I can ride technical and fly off jumps all day, and never notice it's there.

Agreed. Plus, I'd think someone railing it downhill is going to have a much harder time stopping safely than someone making 5 km/h uphill, so the uphiller should be the one to pull aside. Personally, if someone's coming down the trail at mach schnell, I'm just getting the hell out of their way.